Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for APPULDURCOMBE, or Appledurwell

APPULDURCOMBE, or Appledurwell, a manor in Godshill parish, 2½ miles NW of Ventnor, Isle of Wight. It was given by Isabella de Fortibus, in the time of Henry III., to the Benedictine Abbey of Montebourg in Normandy; suffered seizure, in the time of Henry V., in reprisal of the hostilities of France; was granted by Henry VI. to the Minoresses without Aldgate in London; went from them by lease to the Frys, and from the latter by marriage to the Leighs and the Worsleys; passed, at the death of Sir Richard, the last of the Worsleys, to the noble family of Yarborough; and was sold by the present Earl to Winn Williams, Esq. A priory stood on it while it belonged to the Benedictines, and was afterwards converted into a manor house; and one of the Worsleys entertained here Henry VIII. and his minister Cromwell. The present mansion was founded in 1710 by Sir Robert Worsley, and completed by Sir Richard, the historian of the island; and is a square Corinthian edifice of Portland stone, with low projecting wings. A very rich collection of pictures, statues, and antiquities was made in it by Sir Richard, and described in his mag nificent and very costly work, the "Museum Worsleianum;" but has been removed to the other seats of the Earl of Yarborough. The park is extensive, picturesque, and highly diversified; and commands noble views. A granite obelisk, erected in 1774 in memory of Sir Robert Worsley, crowns the highest point, at an elevation of 685 feet above the level of the sea; and was originally 70 feet high, but lost several feet of the top by a stroke of lightning in 1831.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a manor"   (ADL Feature Type: "land parcels")
Administrative units: Godshill CP/AP       Hampshire AncC
Place names: APPLEDURWELL     |     APPULDURCOMBE     |     APPULDURCOMBE OR APPLEDURWELL
Place: Appuldurcombe

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